Stone Soup Features for March
March 5th: Bill Perrault and Sue Red.
March 12th: Poet and Venue Host Molly Lynn Watt.
March 19th: Tim Gager Returns.
March 26th: G Emil Reutter Returns.
2/27/07
March 26th: G. Emil Reutter Features
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On March 26th, Stone Soup will see the return of poet, fiction writer, and essayist G. Emil Reutter.
G Emil Reutter is an author/essayist and traveling poet currently hailing from Lower Bucks County Pennsylvania. His poetry, short fiction and essays have been published widely in the small and electronic press. He has presented his poetry at numerous venues in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Southwest areas of the United States.
He has authored several collections to include Life Views (2004/2007), The Jonesville Collection(2004/2006) and Asphalt Road(2004/2006) published by Stone Garden, Stirring Within Poems and Tales From Mount Carmel(2006) published by Blazevox Books and Direction Unknown, a poetry chapbook forthcoming from Moon Printing and Publishing. A number of projects are in submission status.
His poetry/prose/essays have been published widely in the small and electronic press. A sample poem follows.
Shadows in the Daylight
Lurking as a stalker would
Movements invisible to most
Faint, slide and move
From building to building, image to image
Shadows in the daylight abound
Until you see one…not cast from an image
One that may not be a shadow at all
--G Emil Reutter
Click here for visit the author's website.
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On March 26th, Stone Soup will see the return of poet, fiction writer, and essayist G. Emil Reutter.
G Emil Reutter is an author/essayist and traveling poet currently hailing from Lower Bucks County Pennsylvania. His poetry, short fiction and essays have been published widely in the small and electronic press. He has presented his poetry at numerous venues in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Southwest areas of the United States.
He has authored several collections to include Life Views (2004/2007), The Jonesville Collection(2004/2006) and Asphalt Road(2004/2006) published by Stone Garden, Stirring Within Poems and Tales From Mount Carmel(2006) published by Blazevox Books and Direction Unknown, a poetry chapbook forthcoming from Moon Printing and Publishing. A number of projects are in submission status.
His poetry/prose/essays have been published widely in the small and electronic press. A sample poem follows.
Shadows in the Daylight
Lurking as a stalker would
Movements invisible to most
Faint, slide and move
From building to building, image to image
Shadows in the daylight abound
Until you see one…not cast from an image
One that may not be a shadow at all
--G Emil Reutter
Click here for visit the author's website.
March 19th: Tim Gager Features
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On March 19th, Stone Soup welcomes Tim Gager back.
Timothy Gager is the author of Short Street and Twenty-SixPack, both collections of short fiction and the e-book, TheDamned Middle. His first book of poetry, The Same Corner of The Bar, is available through Ibbetson Street Press and his most recent, We Needed A Night Out, was released in 2006. He hosts the Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts every month and is the co-founder ofSomerville News Writers Festival.
His short stories appeared in Word Riot, Midnight Mind Magazine, Scene Boston, Theive's Jargon, The Insights Anthology, VerbSap, Swankwriting (83 Words), Story Garden and Write This Magazine. Timothy's poetry has been published in Ibbetson Street, Poems for All,Erato, Poetry Life and Times, Spare Change, The SomervilleNews, Generation X National Journal, High Horse, Third LungReview, 63 Channels and Poesy XXIV. His poetry has beennominated for two Cambridge Poetry Awards.
Timothy is the founding co-editor of The Heat City LiteraryReview and has edited the book, Out of the Blue WritersUnite: A Book of Poetry and Prose from the Out of the BlueArt Gallery.
A graduate of the University of Delaware, Timothy lives inDedham, Massachusetts and is employed as a social worker.
Click here for a sample of Tim Gager's work.
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On March 19th, Stone Soup welcomes Tim Gager back.
Timothy Gager is the author of Short Street and Twenty-SixPack, both collections of short fiction and the e-book, TheDamned Middle. His first book of poetry, The Same Corner of The Bar, is available through Ibbetson Street Press and his most recent, We Needed A Night Out, was released in 2006. He hosts the Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts every month and is the co-founder ofSomerville News Writers Festival.
His short stories appeared in Word Riot, Midnight Mind Magazine, Scene Boston, Theive's Jargon, The Insights Anthology, VerbSap, Swankwriting (83 Words), Story Garden and Write This Magazine. Timothy's poetry has been published in Ibbetson Street, Poems for All,Erato, Poetry Life and Times, Spare Change, The SomervilleNews, Generation X National Journal, High Horse, Third LungReview, 63 Channels and Poesy XXIV. His poetry has beennominated for two Cambridge Poetry Awards.
Timothy is the founding co-editor of The Heat City LiteraryReview and has edited the book, Out of the Blue WritersUnite: A Book of Poetry and Prose from the Out of the BlueArt Gallery.
A graduate of the University of Delaware, Timothy lives inDedham, Massachusetts and is employed as a social worker.
Click here for a sample of Tim Gager's work.
March 12th: Molly Lynn Watt Features
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On March 12th, poet, editor, and poetry host Molly Lynn Watt will be reading a selection from her new release.
Molly Lynn Watt's book of poetry, Shadow People, was released this year from Ibbetson Street Press. Her poems have appeared recently in HILR Review, South Carolina Review, Types and Shadows Review, Friends Journal, Spare Change, The Wilderness Literary Review and other places. Her other recent credits include editing the forthcoming 2006 Bagel Bards Anthology and creating the reading theater "George and Ruth: Songs and Letters of the Spanish Civil War," created and performed with Dan Lynn Watt (available on CD).
she leads poetry workshops, hosts the Cambridge Cohousing Fireside Readings (now in its 8th season) and writes daytrip articles for the Occasional Moose. A sample poem follows.
Aurora Borealis
We’ve become night travelers
creeping along Alaskan highways
for one more chance encounter.
She—beguiling hooker
draped in ruby satins—
flashes along Earth’s silhouette
doing hijinks across the skies
dazzling frost crystals in riverbeds
whispering to crackling ground
to join her juicy dance—then ripples on.
We are shadow peoples
talking her by moonlight
desirous of another glimpse
as she rides the mountain ridges.
We’ll wait all night for one caress
from her expanding waves of sheen.
But she’s a neon flirt
who swirls and flares
cavorting through celestial skies—
a good-time girl—
she soars alone.
--Molly Lynn Watt
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On March 12th, poet, editor, and poetry host Molly Lynn Watt will be reading a selection from her new release.
Molly Lynn Watt's book of poetry, Shadow People, was released this year from Ibbetson Street Press. Her poems have appeared recently in HILR Review, South Carolina Review, Types and Shadows Review, Friends Journal, Spare Change, The Wilderness Literary Review and other places. Her other recent credits include editing the forthcoming 2006 Bagel Bards Anthology and creating the reading theater "George and Ruth: Songs and Letters of the Spanish Civil War," created and performed with Dan Lynn Watt (available on CD).
she leads poetry workshops, hosts the Cambridge Cohousing Fireside Readings (now in its 8th season) and writes daytrip articles for the Occasional Moose. A sample poem follows.
Aurora Borealis
We’ve become night travelers
creeping along Alaskan highways
for one more chance encounter.
She—beguiling hooker
draped in ruby satins—
flashes along Earth’s silhouette
doing hijinks across the skies
dazzling frost crystals in riverbeds
whispering to crackling ground
to join her juicy dance—then ripples on.
We are shadow peoples
talking her by moonlight
desirous of another glimpse
as she rides the mountain ridges.
We’ll wait all night for one caress
from her expanding waves of sheen.
But she’s a neon flirt
who swirls and flares
cavorting through celestial skies—
a good-time girl—
she soars alone.
--Molly Lynn Watt
March 5th: Bill Perrault and Sue Red Feature
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On March 6th, friends and Stone Soup regulars Bill Perrault and Red return to feature.
Photo by Chad Parenteau
Bill Perrault was born and lived in Biddeford ME until he finished college for which he had paid by working as a weaver in the textilemills. From 1958 to 1960, the U S Army sent him to Germany as a medic andEducational Counselor. He took the opportunity to tour Europe at that time. When his tour of duty was over, he came home and six weeks later,he married his wife, Lorraine. In 1964, the first of their four children was born and, to date, they are now the proud grandparents of seven. After he and Lorraine married, he began his career teaching high school French and Latin in Maine and upper New York State. He did graduate studies at University of Maine and wrote his masters thesis on Guillaume Apollinaire. In 1973, he moved to Massachusetts to work for Polaroid. Bill now lives in Lowell. Throughout his life, he has enjoyed poetry andphotography. Bill was always the one with a notebook with him to write and a camera to take a picture. He never knew when he might be inspired or find a picture that just needed to be taken. In his retirement, the free time allows him to take these passions to a new level. If it’s joining the Poets in Boston for the Stone Soup Poets or producing local TV programs in Cambridge and Lowell, he is enjoying his creative life. Bill Has been published in the Stone Soup Anthology 2003, Out of the BlueWriters Unite Anthology, and his poetry can be seen on various web pages, and if you are lucky enoughto be on his e-mail list, the poetry is Hot Off The Presses! Bill has featured, performed and sometimes hosted at open mikes all over NewEngland--including: COOL COFFEE in Biddeford, ME, Bestseller’s Cafe inMedford, MA his Walden Pond Series and, of course, Out Of the BlueGallery. Bill is a staple figure at the Gallery in Cambridge, MA and has faithfully supported the events they hold there every day/night of the week-- Stone Soup Poets, WordBeat, Open Bark and all.
Photo by Bill Perrault
Sue Red is a poetess, short story writer and jewelry maker living in Somerville, Mass. May December is her first and certainly not last book of poetry. Red grew up in northern New Jersey and didn’t start writing until after high school. Shegraduated from Vermont College, Montpelier with a B.A. in poetry andcreative writing. The focus of her thesis was Sylvia Plath’s poetry and how it wasinfluenced by her turbulent relationship with Ted Hughes. The same emotional intensity is visible in Red’s poems. She considers Sylvia a soul who guides her on her journeys, both creative and emotional. Upon moving to the Boston area, she began reading at the open mics at the Out of the Blue art gallery inCambridge. She still frequents that venue as well as others in the New England area. Red’s handmade beaded jewelry is often available at Out of the Blue as well.
Click here for a sample of Bill Perrault's work.
Click here for Sue Red's web page.
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On March 6th, friends and Stone Soup regulars Bill Perrault and Red return to feature.
Photo by Chad Parenteau
Bill Perrault was born and lived in Biddeford ME until he finished college for which he had paid by working as a weaver in the textilemills. From 1958 to 1960, the U S Army sent him to Germany as a medic andEducational Counselor. He took the opportunity to tour Europe at that time. When his tour of duty was over, he came home and six weeks later,he married his wife, Lorraine. In 1964, the first of their four children was born and, to date, they are now the proud grandparents of seven. After he and Lorraine married, he began his career teaching high school French and Latin in Maine and upper New York State. He did graduate studies at University of Maine and wrote his masters thesis on Guillaume Apollinaire. In 1973, he moved to Massachusetts to work for Polaroid. Bill now lives in Lowell. Throughout his life, he has enjoyed poetry andphotography. Bill was always the one with a notebook with him to write and a camera to take a picture. He never knew when he might be inspired or find a picture that just needed to be taken. In his retirement, the free time allows him to take these passions to a new level. If it’s joining the Poets in Boston for the Stone Soup Poets or producing local TV programs in Cambridge and Lowell, he is enjoying his creative life. Bill Has been published in the Stone Soup Anthology 2003, Out of the BlueWriters Unite Anthology, and his poetry can be seen on various web pages, and if you are lucky enoughto be on his e-mail list, the poetry is Hot Off The Presses! Bill has featured, performed and sometimes hosted at open mikes all over NewEngland--including: COOL COFFEE in Biddeford, ME, Bestseller’s Cafe inMedford, MA his Walden Pond Series and, of course, Out Of the BlueGallery. Bill is a staple figure at the Gallery in Cambridge, MA and has faithfully supported the events they hold there every day/night of the week-- Stone Soup Poets, WordBeat, Open Bark and all.
Photo by Bill Perrault
Sue Red is a poetess, short story writer and jewelry maker living in Somerville, Mass. May December is her first and certainly not last book of poetry. Red grew up in northern New Jersey and didn’t start writing until after high school. Shegraduated from Vermont College, Montpelier with a B.A. in poetry andcreative writing. The focus of her thesis was Sylvia Plath’s poetry and how it wasinfluenced by her turbulent relationship with Ted Hughes. The same emotional intensity is visible in Red’s poems. She considers Sylvia a soul who guides her on her journeys, both creative and emotional. Upon moving to the Boston area, she began reading at the open mics at the Out of the Blue art gallery inCambridge. She still frequents that venue as well as others in the New England area. Red’s handmade beaded jewelry is often available at Out of the Blue as well.
Click here for a sample of Bill Perrault's work.
Click here for Sue Red's web page.
2/22/07
February 26th: Patrick J. Melvin Features
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On February 26th, we welcome local poet and open mike veteran Patrick J. Melvin, who has offered his bio note and sample poem as one and the same:
Rumors
not much is known about pat,
who surfaced years ago
on the cambridge poetry scene.
here are the rumors.
pat's real name is alfredo fettuccine,
and he is the offspring
of w.c. fields and marlene dietrich.
at the age of seven
pat was toilet-trained by harry potter
one of his poems came in 1st place
in the nacy locke memorial novice award
issued by the poet's roundtable of arkansas.
the difference between pat and a bowl
of peas is that the peas are greener
and possess a higher IQ.
rumor has it that this
is pat's first feature.
he has never played eddie haskell
on "leave it to beaver"
or spoken the phrase,
"nice blouse, mrs. cleavage."
pat learned all his street sense
in the bowery over trashcan fires
with the likes of tom waits
dylan and big bird.
his poetry has appeared
in the haight ashbury literary journal,
mobius, calliope, the pinehurst journal,
social anarchism, as well as other
journals in the small press field.
pat has robbed more banks
than jesse james,
but jesse's knocked off more trains.
he is the unholy union of nostradamus
and quasimodo, the prophet
of big bang and mind-zero.
in 2000 pat's poem "enigma"
(about prison violence)
was considered for a pushcart prize
by the editors of halj.
pats uncle was charles bukowski -
twice removed.
when he's not composing
magnetic poetry, pat sells
girl scout cookies in central square.
he originally wrote the book-length poem
"the wasteland" and invented
the internet (not al gore),
texas holdem, and gloves
with no fingers
the only difference between pat and
salvador dali (other than the obvious)
is that pat is truly mad.
pat is the reincarnation
of the star-spangled guitar
used by hendrix at woodstock.
--patrick j. melvin
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On February 26th, we welcome local poet and open mike veteran Patrick J. Melvin, who has offered his bio note and sample poem as one and the same:
Rumors
not much is known about pat,
who surfaced years ago
on the cambridge poetry scene.
here are the rumors.
pat's real name is alfredo fettuccine,
and he is the offspring
of w.c. fields and marlene dietrich.
at the age of seven
pat was toilet-trained by harry potter
one of his poems came in 1st place
in the nacy locke memorial novice award
issued by the poet's roundtable of arkansas.
the difference between pat and a bowl
of peas is that the peas are greener
and possess a higher IQ.
rumor has it that this
is pat's first feature.
he has never played eddie haskell
on "leave it to beaver"
or spoken the phrase,
"nice blouse, mrs. cleavage."
pat learned all his street sense
in the bowery over trashcan fires
with the likes of tom waits
dylan and big bird.
his poetry has appeared
in the haight ashbury literary journal,
mobius, calliope, the pinehurst journal,
social anarchism, as well as other
journals in the small press field.
pat has robbed more banks
than jesse james,
but jesse's knocked off more trains.
he is the unholy union of nostradamus
and quasimodo, the prophet
of big bang and mind-zero.
in 2000 pat's poem "enigma"
(about prison violence)
was considered for a pushcart prize
by the editors of halj.
pats uncle was charles bukowski -
twice removed.
when he's not composing
magnetic poetry, pat sells
girl scout cookies in central square.
he originally wrote the book-length poem
"the wasteland" and invented
the internet (not al gore),
texas holdem, and gloves
with no fingers
the only difference between pat and
salvador dali (other than the obvious)
is that pat is truly mad.
pat is the reincarnation
of the star-spangled guitar
used by hendrix at woodstock.
--patrick j. melvin
2/12/07
Upcoming Stone Soup Features
Additional information to be added to the site soon.
Tonight: Welcome to Stone Soup the award-winning writer and performer J*me.
February 19th: Timothy Lagerstedt and Suzanne Masciarelli perform.
February 26th: Respected open miker Pat Melvin has his first Stone Soup feature.
March 5th: Stone Soup's Media Master Bill Perrault celebrates his birthday with a reading alongside Sue Red.
March 12th: Host of the Cambridge Cohousing Fireside Readings, Molly Lynn Watt, reads from her new book, Shadow People.
Additional information to be added to the site soon.
Tonight: Welcome to Stone Soup the award-winning writer and performer J*me.
February 19th: Timothy Lagerstedt and Suzanne Masciarelli perform.
February 26th: Respected open miker Pat Melvin has his first Stone Soup feature.
March 5th: Stone Soup's Media Master Bill Perrault celebrates his birthday with a reading alongside Sue Red.
March 12th: Host of the Cambridge Cohousing Fireside Readings, Molly Lynn Watt, reads from her new book, Shadow People.
February 19th: Timothy Lagerstedt and Suzanne Masciarelli Feature
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On February 19th, Timothy Lagerstedt reads from a collection of one hundred poems published under the title of Bohemian Bongo Poetry, with Suzanne Masciarelli on accompanying percussion.
Bohemian Bongo Poetry is a collection of short stories with varied topics constructed using a verse pair rhyming format. Plot and character composition run wild inside this experiment in creativity conducted on the streets of Boston in an intentionally compressed time capsule.
Tim Lagerstedt is an active business partner in the information venture of TS Productions. Under the pen name of Timothy Carl, TS Productions published its first novel in 2003. A second novel and several children’s books are also in the works. Lagerstedt is a native of Brockton, Massachusetts, where he currently lives. He works full time as an electrical engineer supporting an automated manufacturing operation in South Boston.
Suzanne Masciarelli plays the bongo drums during the presentation aspect of Bohemian Bongo Poetry. Suzanne is an active business partner in the TS Productions operation, personifying the intrinsically creative manifestation captured in all of their products. Born and raised in the metro-west region of Massachusetts, Suzanne relocated to Brockton in the year 2000. She attained her Associates Degree at Massasoit Community College in Brockton and now works full time as an executive administrative assistant in the biomedical business. A sample from the book follows.
Chihuahua’s sandbox stands alone in the corner,
It has become her place of honor.
Trained to piddle just like a cat,
She must see the power in that.
No more trips outside in winter,
Frozen tail despite the sweater.
In the evening when guests abound,
And people gather to expound.
About the virtue of this sacred pet,
Who spared the rug and saves the vet.
Of surgery although not voluntary,
Will assure this dog remains solitary.
Won’t be required because she’s clean,
Although at times a bit obscene.
So turn your back and hold your hat,
Because this dog is going out back.
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On February 19th, Timothy Lagerstedt reads from a collection of one hundred poems published under the title of Bohemian Bongo Poetry, with Suzanne Masciarelli on accompanying percussion.
Bohemian Bongo Poetry is a collection of short stories with varied topics constructed using a verse pair rhyming format. Plot and character composition run wild inside this experiment in creativity conducted on the streets of Boston in an intentionally compressed time capsule.
Tim Lagerstedt is an active business partner in the information venture of TS Productions. Under the pen name of Timothy Carl, TS Productions published its first novel in 2003. A second novel and several children’s books are also in the works. Lagerstedt is a native of Brockton, Massachusetts, where he currently lives. He works full time as an electrical engineer supporting an automated manufacturing operation in South Boston.
Suzanne Masciarelli plays the bongo drums during the presentation aspect of Bohemian Bongo Poetry. Suzanne is an active business partner in the TS Productions operation, personifying the intrinsically creative manifestation captured in all of their products. Born and raised in the metro-west region of Massachusetts, Suzanne relocated to Brockton in the year 2000. She attained her Associates Degree at Massasoit Community College in Brockton and now works full time as an executive administrative assistant in the biomedical business. A sample from the book follows.
Chihuahua’s sandbox stands alone in the corner,
It has become her place of honor.
Trained to piddle just like a cat,
She must see the power in that.
No more trips outside in winter,
Frozen tail despite the sweater.
In the evening when guests abound,
And people gather to expound.
About the virtue of this sacred pet,
Who spared the rug and saves the vet.
Of surgery although not voluntary,
Will assure this dog remains solitary.
Won’t be required because she’s clean,
Although at times a bit obscene.
So turn your back and hold your hat,
Because this dog is going out back.
1/21/07
February 12th: J*me Features
Photo by Christine Bower
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On February 12th, we welcome performance poet J*me, as he features at Stone Soup for the first time as part of a string of winter performances in the Boston area and New York.
Over the past 4 years, the award winning poet and performer J*me, who is also known as James Caroline, has made a name for himself nationally through slams and features. In February of 2006 he toured the West Coast with Def Poetry's Caroline Harvey on the highly successful, I See Red tour. His work is a rare mix of literary craft and vulnerability, and the intensity of his performances has garnered comparisons to Patti Smith. J*me was voted Best Local Author in the 2006 Boston Phoenix poll. He is a multiple winner of Cambridge Poetry Awards for Best Erotic Male Performance Poet and Best Slam Poet Male.
He has guest-lectured and performed at Mount Ida College, Hampshire College, Emerson College and Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. In May of 2007 he will be performing and teaching at The Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans with Dorothy Allison. He has studied with Anya Achtenberg, Patricia Smith, Regie Gibson, Sascha Feinstein, and Toni Amato. During the spring of 2004 he directed and performed in Musician and the Muse , a performance of poetry and music at The Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center featuring Nicole Terez, Tom Daley, Regie Gibson, and Iyeoka Okoawo. He has competed with two National Slam teams, and represented the Cantab Lounge in the first Individual World Poetry Slam. In 1997 he was commissioned to write the vocal text and act as artistic sound director for Naked Truths; Voices of Shame, Sexuality, and Eating Disorders in Women, which was performed at the HERE multimedia center in Manhattan. He's been published in Quarry, Subliminal, Pinned Down by Pronouns (a Lambda Literary Award Finalist for 2004), The Shadow Sacrament, the Cascadia Review, and Painted Bride Quarterly .
Click here for J*me's MySpace site for sample poems.
Click here for a recent article on J*me.
Photo by Christine Bower
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On February 12th, we welcome performance poet J*me, as he features at Stone Soup for the first time as part of a string of winter performances in the Boston area and New York.
Over the past 4 years, the award winning poet and performer J*me, who is also known as James Caroline, has made a name for himself nationally through slams and features. In February of 2006 he toured the West Coast with Def Poetry's Caroline Harvey on the highly successful, I See Red tour. His work is a rare mix of literary craft and vulnerability, and the intensity of his performances has garnered comparisons to Patti Smith. J*me was voted Best Local Author in the 2006 Boston Phoenix poll. He is a multiple winner of Cambridge Poetry Awards for Best Erotic Male Performance Poet and Best Slam Poet Male.
He has guest-lectured and performed at Mount Ida College, Hampshire College, Emerson College and Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. In May of 2007 he will be performing and teaching at The Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans with Dorothy Allison. He has studied with Anya Achtenberg, Patricia Smith, Regie Gibson, Sascha Feinstein, and Toni Amato. During the spring of 2004 he directed and performed in Musician and the Muse , a performance of poetry and music at The Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center featuring Nicole Terez, Tom Daley, Regie Gibson, and Iyeoka Okoawo. He has competed with two National Slam teams, and represented the Cantab Lounge in the first Individual World Poetry Slam. In 1997 he was commissioned to write the vocal text and act as artistic sound director for Naked Truths; Voices of Shame, Sexuality, and Eating Disorders in Women, which was performed at the HERE multimedia center in Manhattan. He's been published in Quarry, Subliminal, Pinned Down by Pronouns (a Lambda Literary Award Finalist for 2004), The Shadow Sacrament, the Cascadia Review, and Painted Bride Quarterly .
Click here for J*me's MySpace site for sample poems.
Click here for a recent article on J*me.
1/17/07
February 5th: David Cooper Features The Work of Rachel Eshed
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On February 5th, David Cooper will read from his recently published translation of Israeli poet Rachel Eshed's book Little Promises, published by Mayapple Press.
David Cooper earned an MA in creative writing at The City College of CUNY where he won the Academy of American Poets Prize. His ebooks are published by http://pulpbits.com and his poems are anthologized in XY Files: Poems On The Male Experience (Santa Fe: Sherman Asher Publishing, 1997). His translation of Israeli poet Rachel Eshed's second book Havtachot Ktanot (Little Promises) is published by Mayapple Press. His poems and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous periodicals. He was a finalist in the 1999 Snake Nation Press book contest, has been a semi-finalist in several other national contests, and was nominated for a 2006 Pushcart Prize. He is seeking a print publisher for his two ebooks of original poems.
Rachel Eshed's first book , Hayiti Rak Mifratz (I was Only An Inlet) was published in 1988 by Eked. In 1995 her second book, Havtachot Ktanot (Little Promises) was published by Kibbutz Hameuchad. In 1992 the manuscript of this book was awarded the ACUM Prize (ACUM is the Israeli equivalent of ASCAP) in a blindly judged competition. Poems from this book were published in daily newspapers and in the periodical Aley Siach (Shrub Leaves). In 1999 her third book, Shkufa Bachalon (Transparent In The Window), was published by Carmel. In 2001 the book was awarded the Bernstein Prize for Original Hebrew Poetry.Her fourth book, Regesh Hu Mutarot (Feeling Is A Luxury) is forthcoming next year from Carmel.
In its Hebrew original, this collection of intense erotic poetry won the 1992 ACUM prize in Israel. Novelist Tsipi Keller says, "It is hard to speak of Rachel Eshed's poetry without mentioning 'fire' : her poems virtually burn on the page, and David Cooper's renditions not only do justice to the original but magnify its richness." One of the poems in this book has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Click here for David Cooper's web site.
Click here for a sample of David Cooper's poetry.
Click here for a sample of Rachel Eshed's Poetry.
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On February 5th, David Cooper will read from his recently published translation of Israeli poet Rachel Eshed's book Little Promises, published by Mayapple Press.
David Cooper earned an MA in creative writing at The City College of CUNY where he won the Academy of American Poets Prize. His ebooks are published by http://pulpbits.com and his poems are anthologized in XY Files: Poems On The Male Experience (Santa Fe: Sherman Asher Publishing, 1997). His translation of Israeli poet Rachel Eshed's second book Havtachot Ktanot (Little Promises) is published by Mayapple Press. His poems and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous periodicals. He was a finalist in the 1999 Snake Nation Press book contest, has been a semi-finalist in several other national contests, and was nominated for a 2006 Pushcart Prize. He is seeking a print publisher for his two ebooks of original poems.
Rachel Eshed's first book , Hayiti Rak Mifratz (I was Only An Inlet) was published in 1988 by Eked. In 1995 her second book, Havtachot Ktanot (Little Promises) was published by Kibbutz Hameuchad. In 1992 the manuscript of this book was awarded the ACUM Prize (ACUM is the Israeli equivalent of ASCAP) in a blindly judged competition. Poems from this book were published in daily newspapers and in the periodical Aley Siach (Shrub Leaves). In 1999 her third book, Shkufa Bachalon (Transparent In The Window), was published by Carmel. In 2001 the book was awarded the Bernstein Prize for Original Hebrew Poetry.Her fourth book, Regesh Hu Mutarot (Feeling Is A Luxury) is forthcoming next year from Carmel.
In its Hebrew original, this collection of intense erotic poetry won the 1992 ACUM prize in Israel. Novelist Tsipi Keller says, "It is hard to speak of Rachel Eshed's poetry without mentioning 'fire' : her poems virtually burn on the page, and David Cooper's renditions not only do justice to the original but magnify its richness." One of the poems in this book has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Click here for David Cooper's web site.
Click here for a sample of David Cooper's poetry.
Click here for a sample of Rachel Eshed's Poetry.
January 29th: Adam Thielker Returns
Photo by Bill Perrault
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January 29th, open mike faithful Adam Thielker returns to Stone Soup for another well-deserved feature. His first Chapbook, Rat Tar Art, will be availabe the day of the feature.
Adam Thielker has written and performed his own poetry in Cambridge since 2002. He started reading at the Cantab's Boston Poetry Slam, but does not slam. He just reads. The first evening he came to Stone Soup at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery, both Jack Powers and Bill Barum recited while lying on the floor, under the watchful eye of Bill Perrault and his video camera. He felt he had found a home. Shortly afterward, Bill Perrault asked him to feature.
Within a year, a feature at the Cantab followed, as well as a further feature at Stone Soup at the request of Chad Parenteau. Now with the arrival of Rat Tar Art, just in time for a third Stone Soup Feature, the public at large may take his work home and put it on their own shelves.
A sample poem follows below:
The First Christmas
After The Last Supper
Across the air
The hungry band
In every town around
On empty pots and pans
Make empty clang
To Justice.
Where is justice?
Their hungry songs
Loudly din
Beat by empty spoons
Herding the echoes
Into the square.
Where is the King?
Where is supper?
--Adam Thielker
Photo by Bill Perrault
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January 29th, open mike faithful Adam Thielker returns to Stone Soup for another well-deserved feature. His first Chapbook, Rat Tar Art, will be availabe the day of the feature.
Adam Thielker has written and performed his own poetry in Cambridge since 2002. He started reading at the Cantab's Boston Poetry Slam, but does not slam. He just reads. The first evening he came to Stone Soup at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery, both Jack Powers and Bill Barum recited while lying on the floor, under the watchful eye of Bill Perrault and his video camera. He felt he had found a home. Shortly afterward, Bill Perrault asked him to feature.
Within a year, a feature at the Cantab followed, as well as a further feature at Stone Soup at the request of Chad Parenteau. Now with the arrival of Rat Tar Art, just in time for a third Stone Soup Feature, the public at large may take his work home and put it on their own shelves.
A sample poem follows below:
The First Christmas
After The Last Supper
Across the air
The hungry band
In every town around
On empty pots and pans
Make empty clang
To Justice.
Where is justice?
Their hungry songs
Loudly din
Beat by empty spoons
Herding the echoes
Into the square.
Where is the King?
Where is supper?
--Adam Thielker
1/16/07
January 22nd: Ron Goba and Keith Nystrom Feature
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January 22nd, Stone Soup once again celebrates the influential Friends of Poetry with Ron Goba Keith Nystrom.
Ron Goba is a retired english teacher (a career he began in 1958), a member of Friends of Poetry, and the author of such collections as The Music Box, The Custom of Quoting Someone, and his most recent, Collage As Silkscreen. For several years, he was known as the doorman for the weekly Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab.
Keith Nystrom first started writing and reading poetry at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge Massachusetts.He has been published in Defined Providence and Sensations Magazine, and is the co-founder of the small press publishing group Friends of Poetry.He currently workshops poems with Ronald J. Goba, Nathaniel Connors , and Prabakar T. Rajan.
Click here for a sample of Ron Goba's work.
Click here for a sample of Keith Nystrom's work.
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January 22nd, Stone Soup once again celebrates the influential Friends of Poetry with Ron Goba Keith Nystrom.
Ron Goba is a retired english teacher (a career he began in 1958), a member of Friends of Poetry, and the author of such collections as The Music Box, The Custom of Quoting Someone, and his most recent, Collage As Silkscreen. For several years, he was known as the doorman for the weekly Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab.
Keith Nystrom first started writing and reading poetry at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge Massachusetts.He has been published in Defined Providence and Sensations Magazine, and is the co-founder of the small press publishing group Friends of Poetry.He currently workshops poems with Ronald J. Goba, Nathaniel Connors , and Prabakar T. Rajan.
Click here for a sample of Ron Goba's work.
Click here for a sample of Keith Nystrom's work.
1/8/07
Reminder
Coleen T. Houlihan and Chris Robbins read tonight at Stone Soup.
We apologize for the lack of posting over the last month. Expect more posts and news soon.
Coleen T. Houlihan and Chris Robbins read tonight at Stone Soup.
We apologize for the lack of posting over the last month. Expect more posts and news soon.
1/5/07
Upcoming Features
January 8th: Coleen T. Houlihan and Chris Robbins.
January 15th: Poet and Editor Christine Gelineau has her first Stone Soup feature.
January 22nd: Friends of Poetry Ron Goba and Keith Nystrom.
January 29th: Adam Thielker has another well-deserved feature.
January 8th: Coleen T. Houlihan and Chris Robbins.
January 15th: Poet and Editor Christine Gelineau has her first Stone Soup feature.
January 22nd: Friends of Poetry Ron Goba and Keith Nystrom.
January 29th: Adam Thielker has another well-deserved feature.
January 15th: Christine Gelineau Features
Photo by Jonathan Dunlap
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January15th, Stone Soup welcomes Christine Gelineau as well as surprise guest readers from the upcoming French Connections anthology.
Christine Gelineau is the author of Remorseless Loyalty, which was published this year by Ashland Poetry Press as the winner of the Richard Snyder Memorial Prize. Remorseless Loyalty has been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Awards. She is also the author of two chapbooks from FootHills Publishing, North American Song Line (2001) and In the Greenwood World (2006), and the co-editor (with Jack Bedell) of French Connections: A Gathering of Franco-American Poets (forthcoming in 2007). Gelineau's poetry, essays and reviews have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Prairie Schooner, Connecticut Review, The Iron Horse Review, Green Mountains Review, Georgia Review, American Literary Review and others. Her poems have twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her essay "Foal Watch" is cited as a "Notable Essay" in the 2004 Best American Essays. Gelineau lives on a farm in upstate New York. She teaches at Binghamton University, where she is Associate Director of the Creative Writing Program and coordinator of the Readers' Series. She also teaches poetry in the low-residency graduate writing program at Wilkes University.
Click here for samples of Gelineau's work.
Photo by Jonathan Dunlap
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January15th, Stone Soup welcomes Christine Gelineau as well as surprise guest readers from the upcoming French Connections anthology.
Christine Gelineau is the author of Remorseless Loyalty, which was published this year by Ashland Poetry Press as the winner of the Richard Snyder Memorial Prize. Remorseless Loyalty has been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Awards. She is also the author of two chapbooks from FootHills Publishing, North American Song Line (2001) and In the Greenwood World (2006), and the co-editor (with Jack Bedell) of French Connections: A Gathering of Franco-American Poets (forthcoming in 2007). Gelineau's poetry, essays and reviews have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Prairie Schooner, Connecticut Review, The Iron Horse Review, Green Mountains Review, Georgia Review, American Literary Review and others. Her poems have twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her essay "Foal Watch" is cited as a "Notable Essay" in the 2004 Best American Essays. Gelineau lives on a farm in upstate New York. She teaches at Binghamton University, where she is Associate Director of the Creative Writing Program and coordinator of the Readers' Series. She also teaches poetry in the low-residency graduate writing program at Wilkes University.
Click here for samples of Gelineau's work.
1/4/07
January 8th: Coleen T. Houlihan and Chris Robbins Feature
Photos by Bill Perrault
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January 8th, Stone Soup celebrates the first feature of the year with the unlikely pairing of Stone Soup regulars Coleen T. Houlihan and Chris Robbins.
Coleen T. Houlihan is a novelist and poet who studiedwriting at Wellesley College. She has featured atStone Soup, Best Sellers, the Sherman Cafe and WaldenPoetry Series and published poetry in The Alewife, TheWilderness House Literary Review, Ibbetson StreetPress, Spare Change and abroad. Her poetry could bedescribed as sensual, magical, light and dark, withimages so vivid you can lose yourself in herhauntingly beautiful world. She has released twochapbooks, the most recent titled, This Human Heart, acollection of eight poems spanning several years.
Chris Robbins was born in Boston, MA, in 1965, not that this crap is actually important. He graduated Whitman-Hanson High in 1984, earning a B. S. degree ('cause, fact it people, that's all a high school diploma is really worth these days). In 1993, after writing poetry and otherwise wasting ink for nine years, Chris wrote a bunch of fixed form poems and, attempting to emulate one of his favorite classic rock bands, Jethro Tull, self-published a chapbook called Bard's Ambition. Now, 14 years later, he's at it again, this time with a chapbook of love and human equality poetry, appropriately called Love Among Equals.
Samples of both poets' work follow.
Sitting alone in a bar
Sepia distills from fixtures
into my clear, cold glass.
We both sit at the round table,
big enough for three or four
but I am the only one breathing, breathing.
Shallow inhalations, I will my ribcage
to lean outward, daring it to enter
the surrounding world.
My foot is not a follower,
it tabs beat to music
whose lyrics are lost
to immediate human sound.
Gregarious little fool-
no horror movie is this,
I have it by the bone, tissue, cartilage.
I have it by the root.
It stops moving.
My body is contorted into four limbs
and an Eiffel Tower spine.
I think I have trapped my soul too
but the eyes dart about,
dart about, look alive.
We know what happens to the doe
who under car lights freezes.
But what about her eyes?
I’ve always been untouchable.
I’ve always been teasing.
I’ve always been untouchable,
silently, secretly, bleeding.
Sepia distills.
It is my blood in this room.
I am the warden of my body;
she says I will die in this tomb.
--Coleen T. Houlihan
Womanist Writer's Day
Dedicated to the authors of Home Girls; A Black Feminist Anthology
Ebony Sappho, I love and admire you dearly
Even though I'll never wear your ring,
You brought me nurturing wisdom that helps me see clearly
so I'll praise your homegirl spirit when I sing.
You write about natural hair and nurturing ties.
Forsaking the fake shield of silence to fight repression,
You take a stand against homophobic lies
and the doublethink that causes your double oppression.
With empathic insight and independent grace,
You rescue your sisters from shackles of abuse and fear.
When you valiantly speak your voice in a feminist place,
We know for a fact we'll find no bull "sheep" around here!
In conclusion, succinctly put, I have to say
that we should declare a "Womanist Writer's Day."
--Chris Robbins
Photos by Bill Perrault
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On January 8th, Stone Soup celebrates the first feature of the year with the unlikely pairing of Stone Soup regulars Coleen T. Houlihan and Chris Robbins.
Coleen T. Houlihan is a novelist and poet who studiedwriting at Wellesley College. She has featured atStone Soup, Best Sellers, the Sherman Cafe and WaldenPoetry Series and published poetry in The Alewife, TheWilderness House Literary Review, Ibbetson StreetPress, Spare Change and abroad. Her poetry could bedescribed as sensual, magical, light and dark, withimages so vivid you can lose yourself in herhauntingly beautiful world. She has released twochapbooks, the most recent titled, This Human Heart, acollection of eight poems spanning several years.
Chris Robbins was born in Boston, MA, in 1965, not that this crap is actually important. He graduated Whitman-Hanson High in 1984, earning a B. S. degree ('cause, fact it people, that's all a high school diploma is really worth these days). In 1993, after writing poetry and otherwise wasting ink for nine years, Chris wrote a bunch of fixed form poems and, attempting to emulate one of his favorite classic rock bands, Jethro Tull, self-published a chapbook called Bard's Ambition. Now, 14 years later, he's at it again, this time with a chapbook of love and human equality poetry, appropriately called Love Among Equals.
Samples of both poets' work follow.
Sitting alone in a bar
Sepia distills from fixtures
into my clear, cold glass.
We both sit at the round table,
big enough for three or four
but I am the only one breathing, breathing.
Shallow inhalations, I will my ribcage
to lean outward, daring it to enter
the surrounding world.
My foot is not a follower,
it tabs beat to music
whose lyrics are lost
to immediate human sound.
Gregarious little fool-
no horror movie is this,
I have it by the bone, tissue, cartilage.
I have it by the root.
It stops moving.
My body is contorted into four limbs
and an Eiffel Tower spine.
I think I have trapped my soul too
but the eyes dart about,
dart about, look alive.
We know what happens to the doe
who under car lights freezes.
But what about her eyes?
I’ve always been untouchable.
I’ve always been teasing.
I’ve always been untouchable,
silently, secretly, bleeding.
Sepia distills.
It is my blood in this room.
I am the warden of my body;
she says I will die in this tomb.
--Coleen T. Houlihan
Womanist Writer's Day
Dedicated to the authors of Home Girls; A Black Feminist Anthology
Ebony Sappho, I love and admire you dearly
Even though I'll never wear your ring,
You brought me nurturing wisdom that helps me see clearly
so I'll praise your homegirl spirit when I sing.
You write about natural hair and nurturing ties.
Forsaking the fake shield of silence to fight repression,
You take a stand against homophobic lies
and the doublethink that causes your double oppression.
With empathic insight and independent grace,
You rescue your sisters from shackles of abuse and fear.
When you valiantly speak your voice in a feminist place,
We know for a fact we'll find no bull "sheep" around here!
In conclusion, succinctly put, I have to say
that we should declare a "Womanist Writer's Day."
--Chris Robbins
12/11/06
Tonight
Enzo Surin Features.
Come back to this website later this week for more updates, including holiday information and the first features of 2007.
Enzo Surin Features.
Come back to this website later this week for more updates, including holiday information and the first features of 2007.
11/21/06
Upcoming
A list of future features as Stone Soup winds down for the year.
November 27th: Poet, comedian, artist, and activist Janet Cormier.
December 4th: Paul Hapenny visits Stone Soup before heading back to Hollywood.
December 11th: Enzo Surin brings his new chapbook to his feature.
December 18th: The return of Aldo Tambellini.
A list of future features as Stone Soup winds down for the year.
November 27th: Poet, comedian, artist, and activist Janet Cormier.
December 4th: Paul Hapenny visits Stone Soup before heading back to Hollywood.
December 11th: Enzo Surin brings his new chapbook to his feature.
December 18th: The return of Aldo Tambellini.
December 18th: Aldo Tambellini Features
Photo by Anna Salamone
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On December 18, Aldo Tambelllini returns to Out of The Blue and Stone Soup.
Aldo Tambellini was born in Syracuse, New York in 1930, his father from Sao Paolo, Brazil, his mother from Italy. He was taken to Italy at the age of eighteen months where he lived in Lucca (Tuscany). At the age of ten, he was enrolled in the Scuola D'Arte, A. Passaglia. His neighborhood was bombed during WWII; twenty-one of his friends and neighbors died and he miraculously survived. In 1946, Aldo returned to the United States. With a full scholarship at Syracuse University he received a BFA in Painting, '54 and a Teaching Fellowship at the University of Notre Dame, '59, studying with world-renowned sculptor, Ivan Mastrovic.
Aldo moved to New York City, Lower East Side, in the summer of '59. He was the founder of the artistic underground, counter-culture group called 'Group Center" which connected painters, sculptors, poets, photographers, musicians and dancers active outside of the art establishment, organizing alternative ways and non-traditional presentation of the artists work to the public. They engaged in social-political activities. In 1965, he began painting directly on film beginning his "Black Film Series" of which, "Black TV," (made using both film and video) was the winner of the International Grand Prix, Oberhausen Film Festival, 1969 and is in the Museum of Modern Art Collection.
Simultaneously, Aldo began a series of "Electromedia Performances" which organically brought together, projected paintings, film, video, poetry, light, dance, sound and live musicians which The New York Herald Tribune called Tambellini's Rebellion in Art Form. The last performance, "Black Zero,"part of Intermedia 68, was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY. In '66, Aldo and Elsa Tambellini founded the Gate Theatre, in New York's East Village, the only daily public theatre showing avant-garde independent filmmakers. In 1967, he co-founded with Otto Piene, the Black Gate, a second theatre which presented live multi-media (Electromedia) performances and installations.
He pioneered in the video art movement in the late 60's and his first video was broadcast on ABC TV News NY in '67. With Otto Piene, Aldo created "Black Gate Cologne," the first national TV broadcast by artists in Cologne Germany, in '68. Aldo was part of the first broadcast by artists, "Medium is the Medium," on WBGH, Boston, MA. In '69. For his media work, he received several grants from the NY State Council for the Arts and exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, Brazil and Japan. He participated in the Sao Paolo Biennale in Brazil in '83.
From 1976 to 1984, Aldo was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a Fellow at CAVS he conducted workshops and organized with "communicationsphere" as series of international interactive Media Communication Projects. Although Aldo was involved in writing poetry most of his life, since '84, he has concentrated on writing and performing his poetry with music, video projection, and has participated in many radio shows and countless poetry venues. He ran his own venue called "The People's Poetry" in Cambridge, MA. He has been published in journals, magazines and several anthologies. His poems have been translated into Italian, Sicilian and Russian. Most recently, his visual poems have been exhibited in Berlin, Germany at the No! ART Show and at the Altered Esthetics Gallery, in the Guerilla Art Exhibit, in Minnisota. He is a founding member of "Poets Against the Killing Fields<" an anti-war group of political and social poets in Massachusetts. He has produced his first digital film, "Listen" which incorporates his anti-war and political poetry, animation/video and film clips. This film premiered at the HOWL Festival in 2004 in New York City. And won First Place in the Short Experimental Film by an Independent Filmmaker category at the at the New England Film Festival in October 2005 and the Syracuse International Film Festival in 2006. The film has been chosen to be screened in several film festivals throughout the United States and Europe. The digital triptych,-1 (Minus One) was presented at the 2005 HOWL Festival in New York City and includes pieces of Aldo's early video work, poetry and digital images.
Click here for a sampling of the author's work.
Photo by Anna Salamone
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On December 18, Aldo Tambelllini returns to Out of The Blue and Stone Soup.
Aldo Tambellini was born in Syracuse, New York in 1930, his father from Sao Paolo, Brazil, his mother from Italy. He was taken to Italy at the age of eighteen months where he lived in Lucca (Tuscany). At the age of ten, he was enrolled in the Scuola D'Arte, A. Passaglia. His neighborhood was bombed during WWII; twenty-one of his friends and neighbors died and he miraculously survived. In 1946, Aldo returned to the United States. With a full scholarship at Syracuse University he received a BFA in Painting, '54 and a Teaching Fellowship at the University of Notre Dame, '59, studying with world-renowned sculptor, Ivan Mastrovic.
Aldo moved to New York City, Lower East Side, in the summer of '59. He was the founder of the artistic underground, counter-culture group called 'Group Center" which connected painters, sculptors, poets, photographers, musicians and dancers active outside of the art establishment, organizing alternative ways and non-traditional presentation of the artists work to the public. They engaged in social-political activities. In 1965, he began painting directly on film beginning his "Black Film Series" of which, "Black TV," (made using both film and video) was the winner of the International Grand Prix, Oberhausen Film Festival, 1969 and is in the Museum of Modern Art Collection.
Simultaneously, Aldo began a series of "Electromedia Performances" which organically brought together, projected paintings, film, video, poetry, light, dance, sound and live musicians which The New York Herald Tribune called Tambellini's Rebellion in Art Form. The last performance, "Black Zero,"part of Intermedia 68, was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY. In '66, Aldo and Elsa Tambellini founded the Gate Theatre, in New York's East Village, the only daily public theatre showing avant-garde independent filmmakers. In 1967, he co-founded with Otto Piene, the Black Gate, a second theatre which presented live multi-media (Electromedia) performances and installations.
He pioneered in the video art movement in the late 60's and his first video was broadcast on ABC TV News NY in '67. With Otto Piene, Aldo created "Black Gate Cologne," the first national TV broadcast by artists in Cologne Germany, in '68. Aldo was part of the first broadcast by artists, "Medium is the Medium," on WBGH, Boston, MA. In '69. For his media work, he received several grants from the NY State Council for the Arts and exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, Brazil and Japan. He participated in the Sao Paolo Biennale in Brazil in '83.
From 1976 to 1984, Aldo was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a Fellow at CAVS he conducted workshops and organized with "communicationsphere" as series of international interactive Media Communication Projects. Although Aldo was involved in writing poetry most of his life, since '84, he has concentrated on writing and performing his poetry with music, video projection, and has participated in many radio shows and countless poetry venues. He ran his own venue called "The People's Poetry" in Cambridge, MA. He has been published in journals, magazines and several anthologies. His poems have been translated into Italian, Sicilian and Russian. Most recently, his visual poems have been exhibited in Berlin, Germany at the No! ART Show and at the Altered Esthetics Gallery, in the Guerilla Art Exhibit, in Minnisota. He is a founding member of "Poets Against the Killing Fields<" an anti-war group of political and social poets in Massachusetts. He has produced his first digital film, "Listen" which incorporates his anti-war and political poetry, animation/video and film clips. This film premiered at the HOWL Festival in 2004 in New York City. And won First Place in the Short Experimental Film by an Independent Filmmaker category at the at the New England Film Festival in October 2005 and the Syracuse International Film Festival in 2006. The film has been chosen to be screened in several film festivals throughout the United States and Europe. The digital triptych,-1 (Minus One) was presented at the 2005 HOWL Festival in New York City and includes pieces of Aldo's early video work, poetry and digital images.
Click here for a sampling of the author's work.
December 11th: Enzo Surin Features
Photo by Lila Khan
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On December 11th, Enzo Surin returns to familiar ground to promote his new chapbook from Finishing Line Press, Higher Ground.
Enzo Surin, born in Petion-ville, Haiti in 1977, migrated to Queens, New York in 1986 where he spent most of his youth. A graduate of Framingham State College in Framingham, MA with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, he has counseled college students, presented on diversity related topics, conflict mediation and health and wellness. A recipient of a Salem State Poetry Seminarscholarship, Enzo’s poems have appeared in The Caribbean Writer, Soundings East, Pine Island Journal of New England Poetry, Red River Review, Firefly Magazine, Poetry Magazine, among other literary journals. He is a member of the Virginia Writer’s Club and currently serves as editor for Joy of Writing, a literary publication for Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle County in Charlottesville, VA. He founded and served as editor of Introspection, a former Wentworth Institute of Technology literary newsletter. Enzo has participated in poetry readings inNew Jersey, Chicago, New York, and Massachusetts and is a regular reader at the Out of the Blue Art Gallery in Cambridge, MA. He currently resides in Boston, MA, where he works for Bunker Hill Community College Library and looks to continue his involvement with literacy efforts.
Photo and bio from author's website, which can be visited by clicking here. A sample poem follows.
poetry in nine rounds
I
night canvas is serene, absent of patrol,
void of the undercover vignettes that swing
through these tenements in search of rock cubes—
the national symbol of withered urbanites.
old-laced Converses perform a high wire act
on the avenue, an anthology's written in their fade.
laughter on the corner vibrates like the bass in a drum.
outside Papi's Bodega, a chromed-wheel Escalade
multiplies the ghost of Tupac Shakur from its speakers:
I wonder if heaven's got a ghetto.
the night drowns in a native glare, suffocating
this thug air, and lays down bereft of memories.
inside, young black order chase arcade mortality
with quarters. any landscape is better than the one here.
each step taken toward higher ground feels cold and lonely—
we inherit this grief each day we step into the a.m.
II
these blacks faces with razor smiles
are my brothers and my sisters;
crowd of trees forms the pillars behind them,
cracked concrete forms the foundation.
stones on the side of roads filled with weed
and old tires, broke down hearts and old hymns,
have been resting for decadent years; laid to rest
for reasons that still forge through this hood:
segregation, thuglife, mismanagement of love....
their residue linking old-school and new generational heroes:
the rapper, the ball-player, the comedian—no longer
the granddads, the grandmamma, the preachers—their spirituals
lost in this modern urban parable.
we wonder why our children face the day malnourished,
when no new heroes tell them to stay away from the river;
no one tells them it is not the Nile—it is manmade on this side,
it is a battered woman, birthing dead fish from her womb.
III
the sidewalk
folds
into the man
who staggered in a hooded sweatshirt,
pant leg in blood, pale as I've ever seen
dark skin, eyes loaded ready to cock-back,
his gaze landing a thickness in my stomach.
i've seen it before.
we've seen it before
in the retreat of our living room
where words come cleaner and men
in costumed clothing grapple with prepared lines.
but this isn't a movie—
—this is Winthrop and Thorndale
where an elementary school rounds the corner,
where the men in white tee-shirts hem up foot traffic;
their chambers usually loaded, but today
empty as winter flower boxes.
--Enzo Surin
Photo by Lila Khan
Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery (located on 106 Prospect Street in Cambridge) with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. On December 11th, Enzo Surin returns to familiar ground to promote his new chapbook from Finishing Line Press, Higher Ground.
Enzo Surin, born in Petion-ville, Haiti in 1977, migrated to Queens, New York in 1986 where he spent most of his youth. A graduate of Framingham State College in Framingham, MA with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, he has counseled college students, presented on diversity related topics, conflict mediation and health and wellness. A recipient of a Salem State Poetry Seminarscholarship, Enzo’s poems have appeared in The Caribbean Writer, Soundings East, Pine Island Journal of New England Poetry, Red River Review, Firefly Magazine, Poetry Magazine, among other literary journals. He is a member of the Virginia Writer’s Club and currently serves as editor for Joy of Writing, a literary publication for Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle County in Charlottesville, VA. He founded and served as editor of Introspection, a former Wentworth Institute of Technology literary newsletter. Enzo has participated in poetry readings inNew Jersey, Chicago, New York, and Massachusetts and is a regular reader at the Out of the Blue Art Gallery in Cambridge, MA. He currently resides in Boston, MA, where he works for Bunker Hill Community College Library and looks to continue his involvement with literacy efforts.
Photo and bio from author's website, which can be visited by clicking here. A sample poem follows.
poetry in nine rounds
I
night canvas is serene, absent of patrol,
void of the undercover vignettes that swing
through these tenements in search of rock cubes—
the national symbol of withered urbanites.
old-laced Converses perform a high wire act
on the avenue, an anthology's written in their fade.
laughter on the corner vibrates like the bass in a drum.
outside Papi's Bodega, a chromed-wheel Escalade
multiplies the ghost of Tupac Shakur from its speakers:
I wonder if heaven's got a ghetto.
the night drowns in a native glare, suffocating
this thug air, and lays down bereft of memories.
inside, young black order chase arcade mortality
with quarters. any landscape is better than the one here.
each step taken toward higher ground feels cold and lonely—
we inherit this grief each day we step into the a.m.
II
these blacks faces with razor smiles
are my brothers and my sisters;
crowd of trees forms the pillars behind them,
cracked concrete forms the foundation.
stones on the side of roads filled with weed
and old tires, broke down hearts and old hymns,
have been resting for decadent years; laid to rest
for reasons that still forge through this hood:
segregation, thuglife, mismanagement of love....
their residue linking old-school and new generational heroes:
the rapper, the ball-player, the comedian—no longer
the granddads, the grandmamma, the preachers—their spirituals
lost in this modern urban parable.
we wonder why our children face the day malnourished,
when no new heroes tell them to stay away from the river;
no one tells them it is not the Nile—it is manmade on this side,
it is a battered woman, birthing dead fish from her womb.
III
the sidewalk
folds
into the man
who staggered in a hooded sweatshirt,
pant leg in blood, pale as I've ever seen
dark skin, eyes loaded ready to cock-back,
his gaze landing a thickness in my stomach.
i've seen it before.
we've seen it before
in the retreat of our living room
where words come cleaner and men
in costumed clothing grapple with prepared lines.
but this isn't a movie—
—this is Winthrop and Thorndale
where an elementary school rounds the corner,
where the men in white tee-shirts hem up foot traffic;
their chambers usually loaded, but today
empty as winter flower boxes.
--Enzo Surin
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